


Happy Anniversary

by fluffybunnybadass



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Selfship, So Married, anyways we're so married and that's that, ba-dum tsssh, did you know that when I first posted this, i can't believe that's a tag for some reason, i legit posted this on april first like some kind of lovesick fool or something...., it had been 17 years since i first fell for him, it's gonna be eighteen in a few more months, like 'caramelly meltingly sweet' romantic, or 'we are so married' romantic, or.... crap i forgot what else people have said, romantic, this is super romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27344551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffybunnybadass/pseuds/fluffybunnybadass
Summary: Do you ever get so moved by your feelings because of an episode, and simultaneously realize just exactly how much you love a character? Or how many years have gone by, and the weight of all that time spent loving them? This was inspired by one of those moments, from when the Pokemon Journeys' episode first aired in Japan, and just the entire awe and hype the episode created.alas, the English dub of the episode left out alotof the background music that made the episode so hype....Or, as my friends say, we are "so married"Told in 2nd person POV
Relationships: self / Champion Lance





	Happy Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe this is a bit late, maybe it just needed me to rewatch all of your episodes, especially the latest one that inspired the rough draft for this, but. I love you. I love you sooooo much. Words fail me. No matter how hard I try, they cannot describe how much I love you, your growth, or who you are as a person.
> 
> And I hope that you, too, continue to stand by me, and love me for who I am, and appreciate all the growth I’ve done and continue to watch over me. I hope we can continue to watch over each other, and be proud of how far we’ve come.
> 
> This is for you, because I can’t share my love with you in any other way.

You had taken your seat in the stadium. Other people were slowly filing in, and though you could have been in a special reserved seating, you had politely declined, opting instead to sit with the rest of the crowd. It was part of the experience. To be amongst all that high energy, the yelling and cheering... A Pokemon battle like this, you didn't need to be at the ground level or some box seat to truly enjoy it. You needed to be with the crowd for it to truly be an experience. Besides, where else would you have had the best see to watch your husband, if you weren't cheering and yelling from the rails.

Before you had arrived in the stadium, you went to wish him luck. It was exciting, to see his talents being recognized, all his hard work over the years being put to the test, and you could see how excited he was for the match itself. There was a light in his eyes, not unlike the kind that you two had in your matches when you were younger, both trainers aiming to be the best. Lance had, of course, accomplished much more at a much younger age than you, and maintained the very prestigious title of Champion for many years, but that didn't stop you from catching up and challenging various leagues across all the regions. You may have declined taking the Champion's seat at one point, but you still had many league trophies decorating your walls.

“Good luck!” You gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and he returned it in kind.

“Thank you. But it isn't luck that will determine the battle, but skill.”

“Of course, sweetie. But all the same, I want you to win. Kick his ass and show him what you can do!”

He laughed at you, ruffling your hair. You gave him another kiss for luck, and left, your Pokemon following along behind you. Your Pikachu let out her own cheer for good luck, sparking a little out of her cheeks at your husband. You had closed the door as he got ready.

There was a hush over the crowd when the lights dimmed, and the stadium began flashing its performance of lights. It was such a lovely spectacle, almost magical to watch the light show. You wondered if he got to see it... After all, if Galar had such wondrous displays before their matches, wouldn't it be nice to see if you guys could catch some more matches around here when this was over? It would have been nice, almost romantic... But as your attention began to waver in its imagination, you were brought back to the stadium before you by the sound of the stadium's announcer.

“Ladies and gentleman!” boomed across the stadium. The crowd began screaming and cheering, and you couldn't help joining in. “The time has come at last!”

A gasp came out of your mouth as you watched in the dim stadium the sight of your husband, bathed in spotlight, walking across the field. How amazing he looked, the respect he could command as he advanced towards his side of the battlefield, self-assured. The focused expression on his face. Others may have mistaken it for seriousness-- you knew that was nothing compared to the fire that burned beneath. You knew your husband well enough that you could see his excitement, even from afar, even with his image on the large screen that brought the audience close ups. You found yourself shaking with barely concealed excitement as the announcer introduced your husband.

When you heard his name said, you let out an excited squeal, which quickly turned into a loud cheer. Beside you, your partner Pokemon jumped up and down, getting in on the excitement. Sparks lit up around her cheeks, flashing like a light stick.

“Ah!!! That reminds me,” you said, rummaging through your itabag. “Haha! I knew I managed to sneak it in there before we left.” You held up your glow stick, clicking the light on to red, and passed another one to your Pikachu.

“Here Pika, use this!” you said, grinning like a dope. Maybe it was a little early to say it, but this had been a long time coming, and you, too, were excited for his match, maybe more than him! As you did this, the opponent-- the local Champion appeared, sauntering on the battlefield with his own charisma that made the crowd go wild. How curious it was, that two very different people could command the crowd's attention in their own, unique ways. You watched, giggling a little at how the much younger man introduced himself, words exchanged between the two contenders. Your husband smirked at the younger champion's challenging words, and you felt your heart do a little flip, fighting back a blush as you watched on the split camera their exchange.

After the two had exchanged words, the battle started. You knew who Lance would choose, as the Galarian Champion had been well-known for his Charizard, but nevertheless you were still so excited, waiting in anticipation to see his Red Gyarados shine as it appeared from its Pokeball. Gyarados had made plenty of appearances in matches and missions over the years since he had first caught it over a decade ago, but, somehow, this felt like the culmination and proof of their teamwork. More sparks flew from your Pikachu as it jumped up and down, waving the red light you handed it. It seemed like even she knew how exciting this moment was for both of them!

You knew he wouldn’t be able to hear you, but that didn’t stop you from screaming for him. Your voice would be a little hoarse the next day, but you’ll just joke with him about it, as a testament of how much you love him. But for now, you didn’t care about what would come, so long as he won. You cheered hard for him.

“GO LANCE, YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!” you screamed across the already noisy stadium, that was filled to the brim with cheers and excitement from the match between two extremely skilled trainers from different regions

Both Champions were aggressive in their battling strategy, but you watched as your husband displayed his mastery on the battlefield. Moves known for their offensive strategy, he used for both defense and offense. You loved seeing how quickly he reacted; Aqua Tail to remove the flames trapping Gyarados, following it up with Ice Fang. How exciting it was, watching him battle! He always knew how to keep an opponent on their toes, charging forward as much as possible, unwilling to give his opponent room.

“I was waiting for this,” you heard Leon say. “Thunder Punch!”

Despite the shock you felt when you saw Gyarados collide with the Thunderpunch from Leon’s Charizard, you still cheered for your husband's Gyarados. You knew Lance would be frustrated at the surprise attack, but wouldn’t let a setback like that disrupt his cool. They had trained too much for this to cause them to lose outright. The flurry of Aqua Tails to counter the Thunder Punch was exciting to watch! Even though the type difference now skewed more towards Charizard's favor, Lance and Gyarados never flinched, giving it their all as Gyarados deflected the attacks with its mighty tail.

You watched with baited breathe as he called Gyarados back. Confusion circled in your mind. What was he doing?! But as he spoke, you realized with the Pokeball's growing red light what was going on. Dynamaxing. Lance had mention it to you before. When he first told you where the match was taking place, he explained how it worked and showed you pictures of the phenomenon. But that felt like nothing compared to the glowing now in front of your face. The sky darkened. Gyarados grew three times its size. You saw clouds gather, even a few seemingly drawn to Gyarados when it first re-emerged from its Pokeball. Despite the change in size, Gyarados seemed unphased. How often had they trained for this? Gyarados had been through some painful things before, but certainly this would have been.... You paused that thought, remembering that your husband had mentioned going to visit a Gym that he had trained at before. A smile formed on your lips. Of course he would have gone to train while he was there.

All that said, you couldn't help but stare in awe at how cool both of them looked.

You blinked as a shielding technology shimmered in front of you after Leon's Pokemon joined the fray, undergoing what was called Gigantamax. Once you had seen the energy from Gyarados' next attack, you understood. A safety precaution built into the stadium, as the energy released by both Pokemon had been at least three times as much as it previously had been. You watched, shielding your eyes from the bright light when the Pokemon's attacks had hit. You watched with bated breath, as Gyarados' protective barrier seemed to stop Charizard's attack. Before you could exhale though, a gust of flames came roaring back at Gyarados, taking it down once the shield had dropped.

…

At last, the match was over. You felt earlier rush of excitement drain away as you watched him walk out across the field to Gyarados, calling the Pokemon back. The energy you had brought with you was gone, and you leaned over the rail, feeling bittersweet about his loss. When you were younger and had barely met, you would have slumped down in your seat, wanting to say something about how it wasn’t a fair win, but after the seventeen years you had spent together with him, you knew that would be such a silly response to have had. Lance would have chided you for insisting that the match was anything but. Instead, once the defeat had registered, you watched with pride and joy as Lance spoke to Leon, shaking the trainer’s hand and announcing to the stadium the new world champion.

It was at this moment, as they waved to the crowd, that his eyes were scanning the crowd for you. As your eyes met, you smiled at him and gave a little wave. “You were so cool!!” you shouted at him. The words may not have reached him on their own, but it seemed he had an idea of what you said, for he seemed slightly embarrassed all of a sudden.

Your Pikachu had given a sad little despondent “chu” when everything had died down. Turning around to pick up your bag, you held out your hand for your Pikachu to pass over the light sticks that you turned off, and put them away. Looking out to the field once more, you smiled, running your hand along the ledge of the stadium’s seating as you left. Your Pikachu ran along behind you, jumping onto your shoulder as you headed down towards the battlefield.

By the time you had got to the hall that Lance had entered the field from, the stadium had died down from screaming and cheering to an excited chatter. You could hear nearby staff calling the two Champions off the field, as the stadium crew prepared to set up for the post-match ceremony. You watched the hustle and bustle, and waited. Your Pikachu had jumped down from your shoulder, and ran across the ground, back and forth. It seemed it was mimicking battle it had seen. It pretended to dodge, cheeks lightly sparking as it pretended to counter. The air battle it was having amused you, making you giggle in the interim.

When you saw Lance's silhouette against the backlight of the stadium field, you rushed over to meet him. His eyes looked around, nodding small acknowledgments at the staff that congratulated him on his battle prowess. Searching eyes met yours, lighting up. He met you halfway, with you throwing your arms around his neck and kissing him. You pulled away a little, looking up at him with stars in your eyes.

“Well that was an unexpected reward for a loss,” he teased, pulling you closer with his arms around you.

“You were so cool out there,” you told him breathlessly. “I’m serious. You were amazing out there. You had me on the edge of my seat!” He chuckled at your praise, letting you step back a little so he could look at your face once more, taking in the excitement you had, the dazzled expression you gave him.

“Knowing you, you were already standing the entire time,” he teased, gently bumping his forehead against yours. He kissed you again, the two of you standing there until you pulled away, a little breathless.

“I'm serious!” You said, continuing your praise from earlier. Somehow it had not left your mind, and you had to tell him before you forgot in the euphoria of being in his arms, kissing each other until all was said and done. “You and Gyarados... You two have been through so much together. You practically saved it, and caught it, and helped tame it, getting its anger under control and getting it to trust humans again. You got a Pokemon that had so much pain, so much hurt in its heart, to listen to you, to obey you and trust every command you gave in that battle just now. Well, every battle since then, I guess, but the point is!! You two were an amazing team. I'm serious. I'm so proud of you and how far you both have come, as partners, as a trainer, as a Pokemon...” You held onto one of his hands, slowly entwining your fingers with his as you looked down, becoming shy as you realized you were rambling. “If nothing else, this proves that you are such an amazing, kind, wonderful trainer, and, and--”

You cut yourself off, out of words to describe what you really wanted to say. He had expected you to give him praise for the battle, but for the rest of this, for you to just suddenly gush about it... It had caught him off guard. You looked at him, almost pleadingly, as though it would help your thoughts and emotions communicate to him, only to notice that all your praise had colored his cheeks.

“Are... are you blushing?” you said suddenly, grinning deviously at him. You let go of his hand, poking his cheek.

He looked away, scratching the side of his face. “....”

“Oh my gosh you are. I don't think I've ever seen you blush before.”

“Oh sure you have.”

“Mmmmmm... nothing comes to mind.”

“Well it would have helped if you had looked me in the face more often when you were younger,” he said, looking back at you with a teasing smile of his own.

“Hey! That's not fair. A-and besides, I wasn't finished with what I was saying!” you huffed, puffing out your cheeks.

He laughed, and you continued.

“Besides, what I really mean to say is... I love you. I love you soooo much. I love everything that you are and in every way that comes to be. Whether its in your battling, or how you raise your Pokemon, or how you do your best to take care of everyone, you're.... just so... you. I really don't know how to say it or explain it. I just know that, when I look at you, I see all those things that make you up, reflected in your actions and Pokemon. I'm, seriously, sincerely, so proud of you and all the progress that you've made with Gyarados, and how much trust it has in you as a trainer, and how much work you had to have put in with it in order for it to trust you that much. And it just gets me thinking about you, and.. and... I feel like I keep talking in circles.”

You had looked away in the midst of all that talking, trying to find the right words to convey how you felt, and glanced back now. There was this overwhelming sense that he wanted to kiss you, but somehow, managed to restrain himself while he let you talk. You felt your face grow warm, and you looked away again, forgetting where you were going. You let out a small peep and quickly pressed your lips to his. He placed one arm around you, holding you close until your lips finally parted.

When you pulled away again, your face was redder than a Hoppip. The two of you pressed your foreheads together, a little out of breath.

“...Go on.”

“I... uh...”

He grabbed your hand and entwined his fingers with yours. It wasn't like you to go off like that, at least not in public, but you had gotten so caught up in the energy of the match that you hadn't stopped to think about the words that started tumbling out.

“Did anything in particular cause you to ramble so suddenly?”

“You mean, aside from how awesome and cool you were out there?”

“Yes,” he said, his laugh soft as you refused to pull away now. “This had to have come from somewhere. I know I'm great at Pokemon battles, but I don't think I'm _that_ great.”

The teasing made you wince. “Yeah, it... came from somewhere.” You gently pulled his hand closer to where you could see it, unlinking your fingers, and instead holding onto it with both hands.

“Um.. It's just that.. our anniversary is soon... And thinking about all the years we've spent together... just, really thinking about how long we've been together, how long we've known each other... And how much growth we've done... And I've just really been struggling the last few weeks, trying to figure out how to tell you. But I realized a lot of it, as I was watching you battle. It just hit me, and the words kept coming once I realized all that I wanted to say, that I've wanted to tell you for years but couldn't quite place my fingers on.” As you spoke, you found yourself going over his hand with your fingers, tracing gently. Your fingers traced across each knuckle, every major line that you could find, the dips and the space between his fingers.

“I know it might seem silly or weird to have had that in the back of my mind, but... I really love you, you know?”

He clasped one of your hands, pulling you in for another kiss. “I know.”

The two of you rested your heads together for a moment more, enjoying the peace that had suddenly fallen between the two of you. The energy of the stadium fell away. Time had stopped during this embrace, and it felt like only the two of you existed. It felt like an hour, an eternity. You both took in a deep breath and held it, exhaling out slowly. The din of the stadium slowly came back to you, and you both held your heads back up, looking each other in the eyes. You both smiled at each other, and, with a mischievous grin, you placed a kiss on the hand that held yours. He met your gaze and pulled his hand back, turning it gently so that your hand was to his lips. Softly, and gently, he pressed your hand to his lips, kissing it.

“Okay, well, now you're just copying me,” you say, rolling your eyes and blushing.

“Is that so?”

“Oh, it _so_ is so.”

The moment finally over, the two of you let your hands fall to the side. You still held onto each other, fingers intertwined as you finally began to leave the hallway. It wasn't until you were walking away, eyes no longer entranced by each other, that you noticed that a handful of the staff were still there. Some of them had turned away from the two of you. Some of them were averting their gazes now that both of your attentions had been brought back to earth. A couple of them had been blushing, while others resumed their work as it was supposed to.

Instinctively, you groaned, and tried to hide your face with one hand; the other was still lovingly held by your partner. “I...”

He squeezed your hand, his voice barely containing his laugh as he spoke. “Did you really think that I looked cool out there?”

“Oh, totally. Did you see what your coolness did just now? Heck, you were so cool that you made a Glalie look warm.” There was a pause, and you both laughed at the terrible joke you made.

He gave your hand another squeeze, and paused. “Oh, I forgot something.”

“Hm? What?” you said, turning towards him again with a curious expression.

He looked from side to side, glancing as though to check that no one was nearby or close enough to hear. He came closer to you, and bent down to speak. His voice over your shoulder, with so much warmth that you weren't sure if it had been him that caused your face to heat up, or just you. You pulled away quickly as he laughed, his words loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.

“I love you too.”

“Oh my god. I'm done. We're leaving, right now.”


End file.
